EE sale will make operator more British

EE chief Olaf Swantee said a sale of EE on the London Stock Exchange will make the operator 'more British' and give it more finacial muscle.

Swantee indicated this week that a London listing may be set for next year. He also said an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange would give the operator, which is owned by France’s Orange and Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, ‘a more British’ identity.

Speaking to Bloomberg about the pros and cons of an IPO Swantee said: ‘The advantage of an IPO is we would be perceived as more British than we are today.’

He added: ‘Being on the stock exchange would make us more U.K.-centric. It would give us more financial capacity.’

Swantee also insisted that customers were, on the whole, no longer confused by the rebranding of the network last year from Everything Everywhere to EE, with the Orange and T-Mobile brands under the umbrella of the EE brand.

‘We are truly one company now,’ Swantee said, adding: ‘Orange and T-Mobile are very strong brands, but both don’t play in the entire market.’

Orange's finance director and deputy chief executive, Gervais Pellissier, confirmed last year that EE could be open to an initial public offering of EE.

Possible bidders includeAmerican telecoms giant AT&T, which is said to be seeking to buy the European mobile operator. Another possible contender is private equity firm KKR. It emerged last summer that former EE CEO Tom Alexander had held discussions about fronting a takeover bid of EE by KKR.